Really Ticked Tachi
by Kryal
Summary: I wrote a FLUFF story. About Sasuke in Sound. Oh, and let's not forget the pet weasel. Just shoot me now, please... Silly, somewhat cute, and far more Meaningful and SignificantTM than any fluff fic has any right to be.


**REALLY TICKED TACHI**

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_Disclaimer: This is just a silly crack!fic, although it somehow took a weirdly serious twist. I had a random ridiculous-mental-image, got an encouraging response at just the wrong moment… And this resulted._

_By the way, when I originally got the idea, I (mistakenly) thought that a mongoose was a kind of weasel. Thirty seconds on Wikipedia proved my error, but by then, the idea had stuck and was refusing to budge._

_And yes – the title IS a horrible, horrible pun on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi."_

_This story includes several Japanese-language-based puns. An explanation of them can be found at the end of the story._

**Warning: spoilers for the Naruto manga up to about Chapter 307.** _However, the story was written prior to the release of Chapter 308, so it contradicts certain developments that occur after that point._

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It began as just another blatantly obvious attempt at manipulation. When they'd shifted to a new base, Orochimaru had found a young weasel making itself at home in one of his old rooms. Amused, he'd presented it to Sasuke as a 'gift.'

As manipulation went, it was painfully obvious – a reminder of Itachi. And Sasuke was, if anything, even more wary of the obvious manipulation than he was of the subtle variety. Because Orochimaru was anything but obvious, most of the time, and if the manipulation here was obvious, then there was something _else_, underneath the surface, that was _not_.

So – to Kabuto's only partially concealed surprise – he'd accepted the 'gift.' Better the devil you know.

At first, he ignored it. The thought occurred to him that perhaps Orochimaru had meant the creature to be a goad, implying that Sasuke was so un-devoted to his training that he'd have the time to waste on a pet. Well, he didn't. The thing would hardly stay long anyway – it was a wild creature, after all. Chances were that it would be gone within a day.

Except it wasn't. Somehow, the damn thing had decided that it rather liked the lair even _with_ people coming and going. They were shinobi, after all, and habits of stealth – such as not disturbing the wildlife – were hard to break. And the fact of the matter was that humans needed food, and food meant vermin, and vermin, for the weasel, meant lunch.

"Stop staring," Sasuke caught himself muttering at one point. Kabuto and Orochimaru were away on one of their little 'detours,' and he didn't feel like dealing with anyone at that point anyway, so he'd shut himself up in his room with his stash of scrolls, black thoughts, and some food. Except that, somehow, the stupid weasel had gotten in. The damn thing could practically walk through walls, and Sasuke's room, for whatever bizarre reason, had become its favorite place to sleep.

Except that right now it was staring at him as he ate. And occasionally licking its muzzle.

"You're a _hunter_," Sasuke snapped at it, acutely aware of the fact that he was arguing with an animal that didn't understand a word he said. "There are mice. Eat _them_."

…dammit. He didn't know how, but the stupid beast somehow managed to put all the piteousness of a hungry Naruto and a crestfallen Sakura into one damn look. Sasuke sighed and lowered the hand holding a piece of meat he'd been about to eat down to the floor, telling himself that it was just the once, to get the stupid thing to stop _staring_.

And its whiskers _didn't_ tickle. At all.

…and if not all of the meat in his dinner was eaten by him, well, he hadn't been particularly hungry anyway.

And the only reason he didn't chase the stupid ball of fur off his lap when he returned his attention to the scrolls was that it was too much bother shooing it off when it wasn't in the way anyway.

R--E--A--L--L--Y--T--I--C--K--E--D--T--A--C--H--I

Orochimaru and Kabuto returned some three days later. Their 'detour' must have been profitable – even a legendary outlaw such as Orochimaru had to make money somehow, particularly to finance his research. Orochimaru was in an expansive mood, however – which, much to Sasuke's irritation, meant that he was expected to interact with them.

Orochimaru was a tool, nothing more. As soon as Sasuke learned how to break the leash that was his curse seal, he'd be gone. But until that time, he had to play the loyal student (as well as he could – at least Orochimaru wasn't expecting any –_sama_'s from him. Sasuke had his limits) – and part of that meant sharing the occasional meal with the man.

Sasuke listened darkly to Orochimaru and Kabuto's conversation, carefully listening to the undercurrents of what they _weren't_ saying as well. Orochimaru was careful about controlling what information was available to Sasuke, and enjoyed talking only obliquely when in his presence, even when the topic didn't concern Sasuke at all. But information was a form of power, and Sasuke was getting very good at reading between the lines.

Not to mention eavesdropping. His stealth and ability to camouflage his presence and chakra signature had increased rather substantially since coming here.

As he listened, he palmed a bit of meat and idly lowered his hand without even looking. There wasn't any point – the idiot creature never failed to turn up for a meal these days, and it just worked better to feed it in the first place rather than sit and get distracted as its staring set off his defensive reflexes. Sure enough, a moment or two later he felt a small, cold, wet nose and whiskers brush his palm, and the meat disappeared.

After the meal, before Sasuke could make his escape, Orochimaru approached him. "A moment, Sasuke-kun. I'm afraid that I have been neglecting you recently…"

It took all of Sasuke's self-control not to recoil from the touch as Orochimaru's fingers brushed his jaw. He _hated_ it. It set off all his danger alarms, for one thing – and he had never forgotten Naruto's warning about Orochimaru's intended purpose for him. He didn't know _why_ Orochimaru hadn't possessed him; perhaps it had something to do with the man's odd appearance when he'd first arrived. But he did know that, at this point, it was only a matter of time. He had every intention of fighting Orochimaru tooth and nail when push came to shove, but he didn't know how Orochimaru would go about it. Either way, physical proximity would probably play a role – and so Orochimaru's periodic touches made him doubly wary.

Besides, there was a certain _undercurrent_ to them that he didn't like one bit.

But he wouldn't let himself be controlled. Orochimaru knew he didn't like being touched, that was why he did it. Sasuke wouldn't give him the satisfaction of retreating.

Suddenly, he felt something latch onto his leg, scramble up his body like a squirrel would skitter up a tree, and launch itself from his chest – and Orochimaru _almost_ yelled in surprise as his hand was suddenly savaged by a berserker weasel.

The little creature didn't seem to care the least bit that Orochimaru was many times its size, and not particularly edible anyway. Its teeth were locked around the base of the man's thumb, its forepaws were digging in fiercely, and its back legs were curled in and kicking savagely at anything within reach. Kabuto jumped up with a curse as Orochimaru stared blankly at the animal, taken, for once, _completely_ by surprise.

And Sasuke, expressionless, reached forward and carefully detached the weasel from Orochimaru's hand. When he first touched it, it started to snap at him, but then reconsidered and sank its teeth into Orochimaru's hand again. It _did_ quietly submit to Sasuke's touch – but it absolutely refused to release any hold on Orochimaru unless Sasuke actually removed it himself. Once he had carefully pried loose teeth and claws and disentangled it from the mess it had made of Orochimaru's hand, Sasuke stepped back, cradling it in the crook of his left arm against his chest. The weasel settled in, but kept one suspicious eye on Orochimaru at all times.

Sasuke could practically hear it thinking, '_Think you're so tough, big guy? Just come over here. Just _try _it. I dare you…_'

Kabuto was actually spluttering with shock and dismay. Orochimaru simply looked on, face as expressionless as Sasuke's for once rather than decorated with his usual smile.

"I do believe that I'm being warned off," Orochimaru said, expression once more amused.

"…Perhaps it believes it's a mongoose," Sasuke said after a moment, with a smirk that he didn't bother to hide at all. "I understand that they like to kill snakes."

Orochimaru chuckled and turned to leave, as Kabuto shook his head and sighed heavily. But Orochimaru must still have been a little rattled at the unexpected turn of events – for just a moment, Sasuke noticed the amusement slip and a black expression cross the man's face.

The weasel hooked its claws into his shirt and scrambled up until it was on his shoulder, looking around with great interest. It even rested its forepaws on top of his head so that it could stretch up to get a better view.

Sasuke wondered if weasels could be trained…

R--E--A--L--L--Y--T--I--C--K--E--D--T--A--C--H--I

After that, the weasel seemed to have decided that it had earned pride of place on Sasuke's shoulder – or, if it was sleepy, inside Sasuke's large, loose collar, which formed a perfect basket for napping, provided that the weasel curled itself around Sasuke's neck. Sasuke took to wearing a loose, lightweight shirt underneath his outer one, to protect himself from small accidental scratches. Or not so accidental. The weasel made a point of avoiding the curse seal, and if it came in contact accidentally, it would attempt what amounted to crude surgery with its claws. The thin cloth barrier saved Sasuke from that indignity.

The weasel also had apparently come to the decision that anyone who came in contact with Sasuke had to be vetted by it first. Anyone save Orochimaru who attempted physical contact without weasel permission were met by an evil eye, and persistence was usually rewarded by angry chittering or even an attempted snap or swipe of claws. It got to the point where Kabuto absolutely refused to treat Sasuke's injuries unless the weasel was elsewhere. Given that Sasuke vastly preferred not to put himself into the medi-nin's hands unless absolutely necessary, he found this to be a perfectly acceptable state of affairs.

As for Orochimaru, the weasel appeared to have developed a near-psychopathic dislike for him. While it would warn most people away, Orochimaru was different. If he came anywhere within range, it would launch itself at him and savage whatever it could reach, and refuse to be detached unless Sasuke pried it off himself.

Were it not for the fact that Orochimaru seemed highly amused by Sasuke's 'over-protective pet,' the weasel would have led a very short life indeed.

The weasel also acquired a name. Sasuke couldn't go around simply calling it 'weasel' – and not just because such a name was ridiculous, he didn't particularly care about that. No – much as it disgusted him, he found that he simply couldn't bring himself to call the creature by what it was, not when that also happened to be his brother's name. He hated that Itachi had such an influence on him – but he also knew that there was little enough he could do about it.

He compromised by simply calling it "Tachi." The moniker was close enough to 'weasel' that it defied Itachi's influence upon him without actually setting off his reaction to the name – and besides, Tachi was also a word for 'sword.'

And it had absolutely no connection to any other '_tachi_.' The thought never crossed his mind.

Tachi appeared to attack whomever it took a dislike to, although (with the exception of Orochimaru) it learned to restrain itself if Sasuke so indicated. Being small, it was never more than a distraction – but it was a fast and vicious distraction.

Outside of combat, though…

Tachi, as it turned out, was nothing short of an infiltration artist. And had inclinations towards kleptomania, as well. What was more, it seemed unusually intelligent for a simple animal – perhaps just native cleverness, perhaps a side-effect of living near the aftermath of Orochimaru's experiments. Either way, Sasuke soon learned to use its ability to get _anywhere_ to his advantage, and after teaching it to find and fetch small items, he started to use it to steal scrolls from Orochimaru's more restricted libraries. Fortunately, the weasel appeared to have a knack for sensing the traps Orochimaru set on some scrolls to dissuade thieves and avoiding them – or circumventing them somehow, a knack that seemed to improve with practice.

It was in the course of this clandestine study that Sasuke stumbled across the solution he needed. Tachi had dragged back a load of several scrolls. Sasuke was scanning one, hoping to see something useful and not the records of experiments that turned even _his_ stomach, when he realized that Tachi was chattering angrily and bouncing slightly, staring fixedly at one of the others. Sasuke had impressed upon the weasel, decisively and often, that scrolls were _not_ for biting, scratching, shredding or playing; otherwise, the weasel's lair would be lined with shredded parchment and Orochimaru's library would be getting a little bare – and Sasuke would have nowhere to hide his own carefully written and coded scrolls. Given Orochimaru's increasing tendency to simply avoid the weasel, Sasuke had taken to using some of the narrow bolt-holes that Tachi used as lairs as caches for his own notes.

But from Tachi's chittering and snarling, he was about to break that training for this one scroll. Curious, and unwilling to allow the weasel's neuroses to give his covert studies away, Sasuke picked it up – and his eyes widened minutely. No wonder Tachi had been hostile. Scrolls often carried faint echoes of the chakra they described – and this one had traces that matched the curse seal.

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It took some time, effort and subterfuge, in the end, before Sasuke had the information he wanted. Some of it was in scrolls, some hidden away in travel journals – one rather lucky find was the scraps of some old notes that had been re-used as bookmarks. But eventually, Sasuke was fairly certain that he understood how the seal worked – and, more importantly, how to subvert it.

The trick was that he couldn't do it alone. From how he understood it, the curse seal involved a low-level link to some form of entity. In its current form, the entity itself was warped into the curse seal and bound there by Orochimaru himself. As a result, only Orochimaru truly _controlled_ it. Away from Orochimaru's presence, the curse seal would fight, warp itself further, and expand, eventually consuming its host.

That part, Sasuke knew all too well. He remembered the curse seal eating away at him, the despairing realization that it was likely to kill him long before he had a chance to take Itachi down. The cold realization that there was a way to avoid that fate, and what it would entail. It had been part of why he'd left the village – the knowledge that the seal was killing him, and _I can't die yet_.

As things stood now, his situation was bleak. He couldn't leave; Orochimaru could use the seal to track him, and it would simply begin eating away at him, faster now that he'd accepted the second level, as soon as he moved out of the man's range. Unfortunately, the same thing would happen if he _killed_ Orochimaru – without the man's influence, the seal would, again, slowly but surely consume him.

There was an alternative. _If_ Sasuke could find another entity willing to take the firsts' place in the seal, and it was a willing bargain on both sides, he could subvert the seal into something under _his_ control. The results would vary depending on the bargain struck and what entity would be willing to help, but the seal would become an asset rather than a liability.

He even managed – slowly, piecing together the clues bit by bit and constantly aware of his time running out – to get something of a list of possible entities and the like he could turn to for help. Orochimaru had put a great deal of time, effort and research into finding the beings that had become the curse seals, before settling on what appeared to be a selection of low-level _oni_. He also had a list of alternative possibilities that Orochimaru had rejected for various reasons. Some, of course, were useless because they would never consent to being sealed within a mere human, or to giving up a piece of power to that human as a kind of avatar. But others had been rejected for other reasons, hostility towards Orochimaru's goals or towards certain other beings that he planned to use among them.

Perhaps, approached appropriately, they would be willing to help him, if only to subvert Orochimaru's work…

And he didn't look at the list of _bijuu_ at all. And he certainly didn't think of Naruto as he did so.

R--E--A--L--L--Y--T--I--C--K--E--D--T--A--C--H--I

Sasuke flipped himself in mid-air and landed with his feet against the side of the crater that had once been his room. A near-unconscious twist of chakra kept him there, standing comfortably parallel to the ground. It was an odd position, and one he'd practiced in a great deal until it came as easily as breathing. The strange angles of fighting someone who was standing sideways put opponents at a strong disadvantage – and even if the opponent tried to negate that by joining him on the wall, the sideways pull of gravity was just as much of a disadvantage if you hadn't accustomed yourself to it.

It gave him an edge, and he needed every edge he could get. He had no illusions about Naruto and Sakura being easy opponents, particularly since they seemed to be getting their act together and realizing that he was serious. Sasuke had made a point of keeping his ear to the ground, eavesdropping and stealing glances at the reports made by Orochimaru's spies. He had a fairly good guess as to the level of Sakura and Naruto's skills.

Although seeing them in action was something else entirely, even with Naruto half-crippled by fatigue – he must have pushed himself a great deal against Orochimaru.

He was _not_ smiling faintly to himself as he spun his katana in his hand, knocking aside a set of shuriken with the scent of steel mingled with something herbal. (It appeared that Sakura was not above using drugged weapons.) And certainly he was not smiling with pride for his former team.

He had one bond. _One_. A bond of hate. He couldn't afford any others.

This was not going to be an easy fight, nor a certain one. Naruto and Sakura alone would be hard enough, but he also had two unknowns to keep track of. One, mid-riff boy, appeared to be in the middle of the painful process of growing a spine (and personality), which meant he was likely to do things even _he_ didn't expect, which made him harder to predict. And the Anbu who had come in place of Kakashi (and he _wasn't _wondering what had happened to his old teacher) was an unknown. But if he'd been sent on a mission into Orochimaru's lair, he was likely one of the best.

Then, unexpectedly, Sakura yelped in surprise – such surprise that the combat paused as everyone, even Sasuke, looked over.

A small brown streak was scrambling all over Sakura, dodging her attempts to brush it off or catch it with the practiced ease of a pest that delighted in taunting shinobi. As Naruto, apparently thinking it was an attack, lunged to try to grab it – laughable, even Sasuke had trouble catching the damn thing, and that was when he used his own enhanced speed and it was just _playing_; he often had to resort to the Sharingan's ability to predict movements to catch it when it didn't want to be caught – it unexpectedly leapt from Sakura to the blond boy, then back again, getting them both tangled up trying to catch it or snatch it off the other.

Ah, yes. It had been sleeping with him again, hadn't it? Probably had gotten confused when the snakes that it so hated had smelled of ink, which explained why it hadn't attacked them, and then had just clung to his shirt as he… woke up. No wonder it was nearly as irritable at the moment as he was. Although, oddly, it just seemed to be running all over the two, rather than trying to savage them. Strange critter.

No, his lips were _not_ twitching with the effort of suppressing laughter.

Might as well stop this, though. If, on the off chance, they _did_ catch it, they'd probably kill it by accident, and they'd hate that – not to mention it would be dead.

Not that he cared, mind.

Sasuke sighed faintly. "Tachi!" he called, letting himself drop and landing on his feet, upright and perpendicular to the ground again. "Get over here."

The brown streak raced across the back of Sakura's shoulders, leapt, bounded off of Naruto's head, zig-zagged across the ground and then raced up Sasuke's leg and side. It was enough to make him very grateful that his leggings were fairly loose and tough – from the look of things, Sakura had picked up a few scratches through her closely-fitted shirt. It also made him wish that he'd left his over-shirt on as he'd slept, rather than leaving it belted around his waist. Tachi had probably left a scratch or two trying to dart across his chest.

Still, he'd been training, and in the caves where drafts were few and far between, any way of cooling off was to be appreciated.

The 'rescue' team was staring at him. He supposed he _did_ look something of a sight – eyes tired and bruised (dammit, did they _have_ to turn up just as he'd finally managed to get to bed? If he'd gotten a full two hours of sleep, then Tachi's name was Fluffball), hair flattened on one side from the pillow, undershirt pulled loose and open all the way down to his waist (…was Sakura _drooling_? Even more worrisome, was _Naruto_?), black katana in hand, and now a chittering weasel looking very pleased with itself sitting on his shoulder.

No, correction. Poking its nose in his ear and demanding a reward. With a purely internal sigh, Sasuke used his free hand to open a carefully weasel-proofed pouch and pull out a small tidbit for the damn thing. "Shameless beggar," he muttered, not quite quietly enough but still keeping his face as expressionless as stone.

Tachi started nibbling – amusing how everyone was still staring at it – then suddenly redirected its attention to the hallway and hunched its back, chittering angrily.

Eh… Ah. Orochimaru was coming. As the others glanced that way and noticed the approaching chakra, Sasuke took the opportunity to leave quickly. The last thing he needed was Tachi attacking the man and giving everyone the wrong idea… or in this case, the right idea, but he didn't want them to even _suspect_ it, or it _would_ get back to Orochimaru and make leaving that much more difficult.

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Sakura's legs gave out from under her as she stared at Orochimaru's body, hardly able to believe it.

The rescue team had come back again prepared – so they'd thought. But Orochimaru had not been inclined to be amused by their efforts this time. They'd been on the verge of defeat when Sasuke had unexpectedly intervened – decisively and with a boom.

_How_ had he managed to mine Orochimaru's entire fortress, anyway? From the size of the fireball, just about every single nook and cranny had been hiding an explosive note just waiting for Sasuke's chakra flare to go off. And from Orochimaru's reaction, the snake's jutsu library had been at the center of it all.

Sasuke slowly, painfully, made his way across the broken ground. He was fast – Sakura's mind still boggled at the thought of _how_ fast he'd moved when it came to battle, and if ever she'd doubted that he hadn't been serious about killing them that first time, it had been confirmed. If he'd really wanted to kill them, at least one of them would have been dead before they realized he was moving. But speed didn't help that much when your opponent had control over a part of your body. Seeing Sasuke fighting against that _damn_ curse seal had almost killed her – as much as seeing Naruto fighting to call out the power they needed from the fourth tail without actually losing his sanity in the process.

But they'd won.

She'd thought Sasuke was going to check on Naruto, or Sai, or maybe even her – but instead, he went to Orochimaru's body. As she stared, he knelt down stiffly, and began searching the body. Before she wondered what he was doing, he freed a limp, bloody rag of fur from the remains.

Oh. The little animal that had attacked them, and that had sat on his shoulder and begged for treats as though that were something completely normal and natural. She didn't know where it had come from – but it had flung itself into the fray as soon as the explosions started, just ahead of Sasuke himself.

The weasel had never relented, not once – there hadn't been a single moment Orochimaru had been able to shake it off. It hadn't done much damage, but it had been a distraction, and a vital one. The one they'd needed to survive.

It hadn't even let up when Sakura managed to pin Orochimaru by bringing a wall down all but on top of him, just long enough for Sasuke and Naruto to hit him squarely with Chidori and Rasengan. And it had gone down with the snake.

Well, not entirely. She heard it chitter weakly in Sasuke's hands.

"_Stupid_ animal," Sasuke whispered, voice so harsh that it made Sakura's throat ache in sympathy. Not to mention her heart squeeze. It would have been shocking to hear that tone from the old Sasuke; from this new, nearly-expressionless one it was even more so. "Should have named you _Naruto_. More guts than sense, the _both_ of you."

Naruto was staring at him, looking about as pained and battered and confused as Sakura felt.

She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled over. Sasuke only glanced up once, then returned his attention to the battered scrap of fur.

She meant to ask permission, but changed her mind. Instead, she just put her hands on the small body and began to concentrate.

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"What do you mean, you have to leave?" Naruto demanded harshly.

Sasuke stood facing the two of them – Yamato and Sai were standing off to the side, leaving Team Seven to talk in relative privacy. His face was mostly expressionless, but there was a dearly familiar stubborn glint in his eyes and set to his chin, despite the fact that he was dangerously pale. He'd collapsed as Sakura stabilized Tachi, as the curse seal at last reacted to Orochimaru's demise and attempted to consume him. Fortunately, they'd had a seal prepared for it; they had thought that they would need to cut off Sasuke's access to the seal once they captured him, so it was a seal that didn't require the recipient's cooperation. It hadn't occurred to them that Sasuke would fight _alongside_ them – or if it had, they hadn't planned on it.

Still, it had turned out for the best; by the time they were prepared to seal the curse seal, he was in no condition to cooperate.

After that, it had taken all of them a good two weeks to recuperate from the massive chakra drain and the physical wounds. They'd managed to move away from the giant crater which was all that remained of Orochimaru's fortress, but that was about it.

"I told you," Sasuke snapped. "This thing," he jerked his chin at the double-seal on his shoulder, "is only a stop-gap measure. If I don't either unmake or re-make this thing _soon_, it'll kill me either way. I need to get moving _now_."

"And why can't we go with you?" Sakura asked, trying desperately to keep her tone reasonable.

From the slightly raised eyebrow that Sasuke offered, she hadn't _quite_ succeeded. "Because you have problems of your own to deal with, and I'll move faster alone."

"Liar," Naruto said, with his trademark stubborn look fully in place. "You're bad enough right now, and it's only going to get worse! Just admit that you need the help for once, bastard!"

"The… people that I'm going to see aren't likely to welcome the Kyuubi on their doorstep!" Sasuke snapped. "And they aren't going to care that you _aren't_ the Kyuubi, either!"

Naruto blanched, then reddened. Sakura hurriedly stepped forward. They couldn't have another fight, not now. There'd be time later, when they weren't so worried and high-strung with emotions and adrenaline.

"You're certain?" she asked.

Sasuke looked at her for a long moment – what did he see? – and then nodded. "Yeah. I'll be able to negotiate better on my own, I think – and you have Konoha and the politics there to worry about." His lips quirked ever so faintly as Naruto and Sakura both grimaced at the thought.

"…All right. But you'd better come back safe, or I'll never forgive you," Sakura said, trying to keep her tone light. She stepped forward and tentatively tried giving Sasuke a light hug. He stiffened, but didn't react either way – either to move away, or return it.

After a moment, she heard Naruto mutter something, probably unflattering, and then he came forward and hugged her, and made to sling an arm around Sasuke's neck.

A warning chitter made them both jump back a bit, as the weasel stuck its head out of Sasuke's collar to give the offending arm an evil look. Tachi – Naruto was constantly complaining about the 'boring' name, but Sakura rather liked it – eyeballed both of them, then pointedly yawned and pulled its head back into its snug nap-space again.

And – ever so faintly, under his breath – Sasuke chuckled, then lightly rested one hand on Sakura's shoulder and gave Naruto's upper arm a very light punch with the other.

Then he leapt into the trees and away.

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In the end, it took Sasuke three more months to return. When he did, his newly re-made seal was still barely formed and he had very little control over its powers, but there hadn't been time – Akatsuki was making its move, and Naruto might as well have put a sign saying "PRIME TARGET" to the back of his jumpsuit.

The battles were bloody, messy, and the outcomes uncertain. Still, one thing was certain – even those who objected to Sasuke's return to Konoha had to admit that he'd earned his way, several times over.

Not everyone was _happy_ about it – but no one bothered challenging him to his face about it. For several reasons, one of which being that, no matter how satisfying it might have been to try rubbing Sasuke's past actions in his face, overall it wasn't worth the consequences of then being forced to deal with a really ticked Tachi.

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_Puns:_

_The name of Sasuke's older brother, Itachi, means _weasel _in Japanese._

_The term 'tachi' – it can mean sword, _太刀_. It is also the Japanese plural, _達_, and when used with the first person, becomes "us." This plural form is also used in _tomodachi友達_, the Japanese word for friend. In fact, sometimes _tomodachi _is shortened to just _'dachi _in slang, so it could even be said to mean, in a roundabout way, _friend

_AN: I'm not entirely happy with the two scenes from Sakura's point of view – I'd rather keep them in Sasuke's. But writer's block is constantly interfering with my attempts at revision. So, this story may undergo revision in those sections at some point._


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